Tuesday 1 September 2009

Vanity Fair Purse - Finished














In my first post about the beginning of this project, there is little description of the purse in Vanity Fair that is being knit by Becky Sharp. ( http://historyknits.blogspot.com/2008/07/vanity-fair-and-history-of-knitting.html) We do not even know if she finished it after her attempts to use it to ensare Jos Sedley. I think she might have, either for something to during the next part of her story or for her own future use. Not having any money, herself, however, I am supposing that it would have been simply finished. I doubt Becky could have afforded the traditional silver closure rings so she may have used thread or hair wrapped ones. I am still researching substitute rings (bone, horn?) and in my case, I used plastic rings covered with silver embroidery thread. The ends are decorated with simple, traditional tassels of the same green thread that was used for the body of the purse.

2 comments:

=Tamar said...

Nicely made. I hadn't heard of the wrapped-ring method; how do you wrap the rings? Do you crochet them, or is there a special thread-wrapping technique?

I've only seen the kind of purse where one end is rounded and ends in a tassel and the other end is squared and ends with fringe. Tassels each end seems much easier.

Verification word is "dedlie" - hah!

One More Stitch said...

Thank you!

I wrapped the rings by tying a slipknot (slipknot and then one regular knot) with embroidery thread on a tapestry needle. I twist the knots to the inside part of the ring and lodge them against the rough bit of plastic where the ring was broken off from the mold. I use this bump as a bolster, hold it in my left hand, let the non-working tail of the knots' end lie against the the rest of the ring and then start tightly wrapping the needle end round the ring. I have to make sure that there are no gaps as I go round the ring and that I am covering the tail. It is at this point that I wish I had a third arm and hand!